Comments

The comment you quote apparently came from a SMU professor - Calvin Jillson - and was about the Tea Party movement in general, not Texas politics or the gubernatorial primary in particular. And it remains to be seen if the Tea Party will fade out or have some of its strains coopted by mainstream parties, such as the strains of populism were coopeted by the Democratic Party in 1912 with the election of Woodrow Wilson.

It is a poor article, because the author apparently hasn't been paying much attention to Medina's flagging race down the stretch and not realising that Perot ran in the 90s not the 80s.

And you're right, it's not a quote (and I didn't say it was). He appears to be relaying Jillson's view that the Tea Party movement is like the Populist Party or Ross Perot and will flame out when the economy turns the corner. Not sure Jillson is right since I believe elements of the Tea Party (basically everyone who isn't a Truther or other conspiracy nutter) could be coopted - and channeled - into the Republican Party with a significant impact on it. That's why I use the example of 1912: Wilson and the Democrats were able to win by coopting parts of the Progressive Party (Bull Moose Party) platform and agenda, and those elements have remained apart of the philosophy and platform of the Democratic Party to this day.